It’s a quietly bright day in Seattle after days of blazing golden sunshine. We are back to our silver-toned sky with patches of blue showing through, promising to clear up for our Seafair Fireworks Celebration. The display starts at 10:15 p.m. tonight in Gas Works Park, but we’ll be viewing it from our third-floor balcony in Ballard with friends and family gathering for a little viewing party. Hope your 4th is fantastic and a great kick-off to July!

Some of the events you won’t want to miss this month center around our fantastic annual Seafair, and the Ballard Seafood Festival is so popular that everyone I talked to yesterday is going! Coincidence or trend… I’m going to swing out and declare it a trend, in our corner of the globe! This is the 39th annual Ballard Seafood Fest and it’s being held Saturday and Sunday, July 13th and 14th, in the heart of downtown Ballard. That’s walking distance from our place, so for those who know me reading this, why not come by and we’ll explore it together? Email me and we’ll connect. The festival is free but of course there will be plenty of seafood treats to buy, both to eat there and to take home. There’s also “great music, local brews, kids’ activities, and quality arts and crafts.”

As for housing news, check out this article about Consumer Confidence in Home Value skyrocketing…

Reports of strong home price gains drove confidence in the housing market up to record levels in May, Fannie Mae reported. According to the GSE’s May 2013 National Housing Survey, Americans expressed record confidence in price gains, with 55 percent—a survey high—saying they believe prices will go up in the next year. Only 7 percent of respondents in the survey expect prices to drop, the lowest level since the survey’s inception. Read more here…

On some nearby neighborhoods, homes that came on the market in Ballard this spring sold in a record average of 18 days, in Queen Anne it was 43 days.